How Emma Grede Got Past a Big Mistake at Good American

Hi, everyone. My newest podcast episode features a business leader everyone suddenly has an opinion on. Emma Grede knows how to build a billion-dollar brand — and stir up controversy. Her success with labels like Skims and Good American is, in itself, an important lesson in marketing. But strip that away and there’s an even more interesting story: how she consistently spots gaps, scales fast, handles setbacks and makes brands people actually care about.

As the force behind some of retail’s most culturally tuned-in companies, entrepreneur Emma Grede has turned size inclusivity and smart partnerships into serious business results. Lately, though, the conversation around her online has drifted from balance sheets to big debates about her views on female leaders (ambitious women should be prepared to “piss people off,” she says) and working from home (“career suicide,” she calls it).